Trends in Terrorism and Counterterrorism
The year is 2030, ten years into the future. You are looking back at the past and reviewing the courses you took while in college. Along the way you remember this course on Current Trends in Terrorism and Counterterrorism and you think back about how you used to view the world and the way the world has actually turned out. What do YOU think the world is going to look like in 2029 as far as terrorism and the efforts to counter terrorist organizations? What does that crystal ball tell you about what is coming down the road and how do you see the world turning out?
Trends in Terrorism and Counterterrorism
The world has experienced significant changes in technology, innovation, and environmental change that have had a significant impact on terrorism and counter-terrorism over the years that determining the terrorism path in the current and future times. Terrorism and counter-terrorism are two aspects on the opposite sides, and they have been significantly influenced by changes in the environment with time. Terrorism entails the illegal use of violence and intimidation against people and their property for political gains. Terrorists have adopted new strategies, approaches, and techniques in causing terror among the people globally to achieve significant political goals and objectives. On the other hand, counter-terrorism entails the military or political solution, techniques, and activities developed to prevent and eliminate terrorism. Governments and international communities have consistently advanced overtime to adopt effective and efficient technological and innovative solutions to combat terrorism. Changes in technology, innovations, and the environment have resulted in adopting new and advanced trends in terrorism and counter-terrorism, thus defining the current and future aspects of terrorism.
Terrorism in 2029
Terrorism has had significant changes in modern times as compared to traditional terrorism. The terrorist organizations have changed, becoming different groups ass occasioned by their disintegrations, thus changing their strategies and attack techniques. The terrorist organization has consistently reduced in size and strength. The terrorist organizations have become weaker due to the loss of former territories they were in control of. The disintegration of terrorist organizations has inclined them from changing their coordinated attacks to the adoption of hit and run attacks or guerrilla tactics. For instance, the Islamic State, known to be a physical caliphate, has been disintegrated, making it weaker with time.
The terrorist organizations have reduced by six as occasioned by returning foreign fighters to their countries of origin, deaths of militants, and the absence of recruitment operations. The terrorist organization has been disintegrated as they move to other conflict zones and serve as force multipliers and serve in weak and failed states. Furthermore, some members of the terrorist organization are held in detention camps for the different violations within the groups. Moreover, the terrorist organization’s funding sources have been cut, thus making it impossible to run their operations such as recruitment operation and meeting the recurrent expenditure. Additionally, countries worldwide have made plans to reintegrate former terrorists into society as peaceful and law abiding citizens. Therefore, the number and size of terrorist organizations have consistently grown smaller and weaker.
There is a concern about the growing trend of domestic terrorists from international terrorism. Different terrorist organizations have grown within different nations, intending to gain political or economic relevance. There has been a proliferation of violent white supremacy extremist organizations and other related groups that have been motivated by right-wing extremism. The white supremacy extremist groups have grown and gained strength in North America, Australia, and Europe. The rise of terrorist grouping in the west has been occasioned by increased migration, Islamophobia, and a toxic combination of populism. Therefore, terrorism has experienced a shift in demographics as compared to the traditional form of terrorism.
Terrorism has gained an asymmetric advantage resulting in the experimenting and adopting technology and innovations in their operations. The terrorist organization has increasingly incorporated emerging technologies in their operations, such as drones, D printed gun, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and disinformation to ensure that terrorist attacks and operation are effective and efficient. The adoption of innovation and advanced technology in terrorist operations increases the possibility of terrorists taking over different territories’ control, especially in the weak states.
Additionally, geopolitics’ growing trend will result in rising new terrorist groups such as domestic terrorist organizations. In this case, the increased forms of protest in different parts of the work, such as the protest experienced in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, will increase terrorist organizations. The protests arise when people present their economic and political grievances, resulting in ideological or politically motivated violence. Therefore, the geopolitical changes will result in an uptick in terrorism in new places in the world.
Counter-terrorism in 2029
National and the international community have devised new counterterrorist solutions and measures to determine the future of terrorism. In this regard, social utility network analysis has been used to develop counter-terror practices and policies that effectively detect and disrupti8ng terrorist operations and attacks. Tracking transnational terror operations ensures that states and the international community understand and assess terror organizations from a theoretical perspective. Understanding terrorists’ organization and operation are vital in developing solutions in policies and practices to counter-terrorism.
Counter-terrorism has been backed with expanded research that goes beyond foundational case studies to effectively counter-terrorism. Different professional groups such as computer scientists, game theorists, and mathematicians have immensely contributed to the research and understanding of terrorist groups and their operations to develop strategies to counter-terror and destabilize clandestine organizations. The different professionals involved in counter-terrorism create elegant and precise computer algorism and mathematical models that systematically detect and disrupt terrorist activities.
Counter-terrorism strategies of normalizing extra-judicial strategies of countering terrorism have effectively eliminated individual terrorists or terrorist groups. The elimination of perpetrators of terrorism ensures a successful elimination of terrorism worldwide. The extra-judicial elimination of terrorists is done by developing overt or covert extra-jurisdictional domains beyond territories that observe human rights, the legitimization of torture at different cultural, intellectual, and political levels, and enhancing widespread adoption of extra-judicial execution among terrorist suspects. The extra-judicial elimination of terrorist stages a lethal approach to the elimination of terrorists and their activities.
Future trends of terrorism and counter-terrorism
The future of terrorism and counter-terrorism indicates that terrorism will be effectively eliminated due to the heightened counter-terrorism strategies and solutions. In this case, terrorism and counter-terrorism adopt new technology in advancing their agendas, goals, and objectives. However, counter-terrorism has heightened the incorporation of technology through research and increased investment. This approach ensures that counter-terrorism strategies are effective and efficient. Consequently, the mass elimination of terrorists and groups and the weakening of the terrorist groups have made the terrorist organization weak and lose many territories. This approach makes the terrorist organization lose relevance, and maintaining safety and security becomes their priority as opposed to launching attacks. Additionally, the traditional terrorist groupings have consistently declined while a new terrorist organization has grown in developed democracies/the western world. The emerging terrorist groups are domestic, and thus they can be effectively managed or eliminated, meaning that terrorism continues to decline due to coordinated counter-terrorism operations.
Conclusion
New trends in terrorism and counter-terrorism have been occasioned by the environmental changes that prove that terrorism will be contained or eliminated in the future. Coordinated counter-terrorism operations have surpassed terrorists’ efforts and operations; thus, the globe will win the war against terror in the future. The coordinated war against terror is characterized by advanced technology and innovation, increased use of extra-judicial killing of terrorists, increased and improved research operations on countering terror, weakening terrorists and terror groups by the day, and a combined effort by the international community in countering terror. Therefore, the combined and coordinated efforts to eliminate terrorism in the future will be successful through combating and managing counter-terror operations.
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